EACH of the four primary elements as taught by the early philosophers has its analoguein the quaternary terrestrial constitution of man. The rocks and earth correspond to thebones and flesh; the water to the various fluids; the air to the gases; and the fire to thebodily heat. Since the bones are the framework that sustains the corporeal structure, theymay be regarded as a fitting emblem of the spirit–that divine foundation which supportsthe composite fabric of mind, soul, and body. To the initiate, the skeleton of deathholding in bony fingers the reaper’s scythe denotes Saturn (Kronos), the father of thegods, carrying the sickle with which he mutilated Ouranos, his own sire.In the language of the Mysteries, the spirits of men are the powdered bones of Saturn.The latter deity was always worshiped under the symbol of the base or footing, inasmuchas he was considered to be the substructure upholding creation. The myth of Saturn hasits historical basis in the fragmentary records preserved by the early Greeks andPhoenicians concerning a king by that name who ruled over the ancient continent ofHyperborea. Polaris, Hyperborea, and Atlantis, because they lie buried beneath thecontinents and oceans of the modern world, have frequently been symbolized as rockssupporting upon their broad surfaces new lands, races, and empires. According to theScandinavian Mysteries, the stones and cliffs were formed from the bones of Ymir, theprimordial giant of the seething clay, while to the Hellenic mystics the rocks were thebones of the Great Mother, Gæa.

After the deluge sent by the gods to destroy mankind at the close of the Iron Age, onlyDeucalion and Pyrrha were left alive. Entering a ruined sanctuary to pray, they weredirected by an oracle to depart from the temple and with heads veiled and garmentsunbound cast behind them the bones of their mother. Construing the cryptic message ofthe god to mean that the earth was the Great Mother of all creatures, Deucalion picked uploose rocks and, bidding Pyrrha do likewise, cast them behind him. From these rocksthere sprang forth a new and stalwart race of human beings, the rocks thrown byDeucalion becoming men and those thrown by Pyrrha becoming women. In this allegoryis epitomized the mystery of human evolution; for spirit, by ensouling matter, becomesthat indwelling power which gradually but sequentially raises the mineral to the status ofthe plant; the plant to the plane of the animal; the animal to the dignity of man; and manto the estate of the gods.The solar system was organized by forces operating inward from the great ring of theSaturnian sphere; and since the beginnings of all things were under the control of Saturn,the most reasonable inference is that the first forms of worship were dedicated to him andhis peculiar symbol–the stone. Thus the intrinsic nature of Saturn is synonymous withthat spiritual rock which is the enduring foundation of the Solar Temple, and has itsantitypc or lower octave in that terrestrial rock–the planet Earth–which sustains upon itsjagged surface the diversified genera of mundane life.Although its origin is uncertain, litholatry undoubtedly constitutes one of the earliestforms of religious expression. “Throughout all the world, ” writes Godfrey Higgins, “thefirst object of Idolatry seems to have been a plain, unwrought stone, placed in the ground,as an emblem of the generative or procreative powers of nature.” (See The Celtic Druids.)

Remnants of stone worship are distributed over the greater part of the earth’s surface, anotable example being the menhirs at Carnac, in Brittany, where several thousandgigantic uncut stones are arranged in eleven orderly rows. Many of these monoliths standover twenty feet out of the sand in which they are embedded, and it has been calculatedthat some of the larger ones weigh as much as 250,000 pounds. By some it is believedthat certain of the menhirs mark the location of buried treasure, but the most plausibleview is that which regards Carnac as a monument to the astronomical knowledge ofantiquity. Scattered throughout the British Isles and Europe, these cairns, dolmens,menhirs, and cistvaens stand as mute but eloquent testimonials to the existence andachievements of races now extinct.Of particular interest are the rocking or logan stones, which evince the mechanical skillof these early peoples. These relics consist of enormous boulders poised upon one or twosmall points in such a manner that the slightest pressure will sway them, but the greatesteffort is not sufficient to overthrow them. These were called living stones by the Greeksand Latins, the most famous one being the Gygorian stone in the Strait of Gibraltar.Though so perfectly balanced that it could be moved with the stalk of a daffodil, this rockcould not be upset by the combined weight of many men. There is a legend that Herculesraised a rocking stone over the graves of the two sons of Boreas whom he had killed incombat. This stone was so delicately poised that it swayed back and forth with the wind,but no application of force could overturn it. A number of logan stones have been foundin Britain, traces of one no longer standing having been discovered in Stonehenge. (SeeThe Celtic Druids.) It is interesting to note that the green stones forming the inner ring ofStonehenge are believed to have been brought from Africa.

In many cases the monoliths are without carving or inscription, for they undoubtedlyantedate both the use of tools and the art of writing. In some instances the stones havebeen trued into columns or obelisks, as in the runic monuments and the Hindu lingamsand sakti stones; in other instances they are fashioned into rough likenesses of the humanbody, as in the Easter Island statues, or into the elaborately sculptured figures of theCentral American Indians and the Khmers of Cambodia. The first rough-stone images canhardly be considered as effigies of any particular deity but rather as the crude effort ofprimitive man to portray in the enduring qualities of stone the procreative attributes ofabstract Divinity. An instinctive recognition of the stability of Deity has persisted throughall the intervening ages between primitive man and modem civilization. Ample proof ofthe survival of litholatry in the Christian faith is furnished by allusions to the rock ofrefuge, the rock upon which the church of Christ was to be founded, the corner stonewhich the builders rejected, Jacob’s stony pillow which he set up and anointed with oil,the sling stone of David, the rock Moriah upon which the altar of King Solomon’sTemple was erected, the white stone of Revelation, and the Rock of Ages.Stones were highly venerated by prehistoric peoples primarily because of theirusefulness. Jagged bits of stone were probably man’s first weapons; rocky cliffs and cragsconstituted his first fortifications, and from these vantage points he hurled loose bouldersdown upon marauders. In caverns or rude huts fashioned from slabs of rock the firsthumans protected themselves from the rigors of the elements. Stones were set up as markers and monuments to primitive achievement; they were also placed upon the gravesof the dead, probably as a precautionary measure to prevent the depredations of wildbeasts. During migrations, it was apparently customary for primitive peoples to carryabout with them stones taken from their original habitat. As the homeland or birthplace ofa race was considered sacred, these stones were emblematic of that universal regardshared by all nations for the place of their geniture. The discovery that fire could beproduced by striking together two pieces of stone augmented man’s reverence for stones,but ultimately the hitherto unsuspected world of wonders opened by the newly discoveredelement of fire caused pyrolatry to supplant stone worship. The dark, cold Father–stone–gave birth out of itself to the bright, glowing Son-fire; and the newly born flame, bydisplacing its parent, became the most impressive and mysterious of all religiophilosophicsymbols, widespread and enduring through the ages.

Saturn, having been warned by his parents that one of his own children would dethrone him, devoured eachchild at birth. At last Rhea, his wife, in order to save Jupiter, her sixth child substituted for him a rockenveloped in swaddling clothes–which Saturn, ignorant of the deception practiced upon him, immediatelyswallowed. Jupiter was concealed on the island of Crete until he attained manhood, when he forced hisfather to disgorge the five children he had eaten. The stone swallowed by Saturn in lieu of his youngest sonwas placed by Jupiter at Delphi, where it was held in great veneration and was daily anointed.

p. 98The body of every thing was likened to a rock, trued either into a cube or more ornatelychiseled to form a pedestal, while the spirit of everything was likened to the elaboratelycarved figure surmounting it. Accordingly, altars were erected as a symbol of the lowerworld, and fires were kept burning upon them to represent that spiritual essenceilluminating the body it surmounted. The square is actually one surface of a cube, itscorresponding figure in plane geometry, and its proper philosophic symbol.Consequently, when considering the earth as an element and not as a body, the Greeks,Brahmins, and Egyptians always referred to its four corners, although they were fullyaware that the planet itself was a sphere.Because their doctrines were the sure foundation of all knowledge and the first step in theattainment of conscious immortality, the Mysteries were often represented as cubical orpyramidal stones. Conversely, these stones themselves became the emblem of thatcondition of self-achieved godhood. The unchangeability of the stone made it an appropriate emblem of God–the immovable and unchangeable Source of Existence–andalso of the divine sciences–the eternal revelation of Himself to mankind. As thepersonification of the rational intellect, which is the true foundation of human life,Mercury, or Hermes, was symbolized in a like manner. Square or cylindrical pillars,surmounted by a bearded head of Hermes and called hermæ, were set up in public places.Terminus, a form of Jupiter and god of boundaries and highways, from whose name isderived the modern word terminal, was also symbolized by an upright stone, sometimesornamented with the head of the god, which was placed at the borders of provinces andthe intersections of important roads.The philosopher’s stone is really the philosophical stone, for philosophy is truly likenedto a magic jewel whose touch transmutes base substances into priceless gems like itself.Wisdom is the alchemist’s powder of projection which transforms many thousand timesits own weight of gross ignorance into the precious substance of enlightenment.

THE HOLY GRAILLike the sapphire Schethiyâ, the Lapis Exilis, crown jewel of the Archangel Lucifer, fellfrom heaven. Michael, archangel of the sun and the Hidden God of Israel, at the head ofthe angelic hosts swooped down upon Lucifer and his legions of rebellious spirits. Duringthe conflict, Michael with his flaming sword struck the flashing Lapis Exilis from thecoronet of his adversary, and the green stone fell through all the celestial rings into thedark and immeasurable Abyss. Out of Lucifer’s radiant gem was fashioned the Sangreal,or Holy Grail, from which Christ is said to have drunk at the Last Supper.Though some controversy exists as to whether the Grail was a cup or a platter, it isgenerally depicted in art as a chalice of considerable size and unusual beauty. Accordingto the legend, Joseph of Arimathea brought the Grail Cup to the place of the crucifixionand in it caught the blood pouring from the wounds of the dying Nazarene. Later Joseph,who had become custodian of the sacred relics–the Sangreal and the Spear of Longinus–carried them into a distant country. According to one version, his descendants finallyplaced these relics in Glastonbury Abbey in England; according to another, in awonderful castle on Mount Salvat, Spain, built by angels in a single night. Under thename of Preston John, Parsifal, the last of the Grail Kings, carried the Holy Cup with himinto India, and it disappeared forever from the Western World. Subsequent search for theSangreal was the motif for much of the knight errantry of the Arthurian legends and theceremonials of the Round Table. (See the Morte d’Arthur.)

No adequate interpretation has ever been given to the Grail Mysteries. Some believe theKnights of the Holy Grail to have been a powerful organization of Christian mysticsperpetuating the Ancient Wisdom under the rituals and sacraments of the oracular Cup.The quest for the Holy Grail is the eternal search for truth, and Albert G. Mackey sees init a variation of the Masonic legend of the Lost Word so long sought by the brethren ofthe Craft. There is also evidence to support the claim that the story of the Grail is anelaboration of an early pagan Nature myth which has been preserved by reason of thesubtle manner in which it was engrafted upon the cult of Christianity. From this particularviewpoint, the Holy Grail is undoubtedly a type of the ark or vessel in which the life ofthe world is preserved and therefore is significant of the body of the Great Mother–Nature. Its green color relates it to Venus and to the mystery of generation; also to theIslamic faith, whose sacred color is green and whose Sabbath is Friday, the day of Venus.The Holy Grail is a symbol both of the lower (or irrational) world and of the bodilynature of man, because both are receptacles for the living essences of the superior worlds.Such is the mystery of the redeeming blood which, descending into the condition ofdeath, overcomes the last enemy by ensouling all substance with its own immortality. Tothe Christian, whose mystic faith especially emphasizes the love element, the Holy Grailtypifies the heart in which continually swirls the living water of eternal life. Moreover, to the Christian, the search for the Holy Grail is the search for the real Self which, whenfound, is the consummation of the magnum opus.The Holy Cup can be discovered only by those who have raised themselves above thelimitations of sensuous existence. In his mystic poem, The Vision of Sir Launfal, JamesRussell Lowell discloses the true nature of the Holy Grail by showing that it is visibleonly to a certain state of spiritual consciousness. Only upon returning from the vainpursuit of haughty ambition did the aged and broken knight see in the transformed leper’scup the glowing chalice of his lifelong dream. Some writers trace a similarity between theGrail legend and the stories of the martyred Sun Gods whose blood, descending fromheaven into the earth, was caught in the cup of matter and liberated therefrom by theinitiatory rites. The Holy Grail may also be the seed pod so frequently employed in theancient Mysteries as an emblem of germination and resurrection; and if the cuplike shapeof the Grail be derived from the flower, it signifies the regeneration and spiritualizationof the generative forces in man.There are many accounts of stone images which, because of the substances entering intotheir composition and the ceremonials attendant upon their construction, were ensouledby the divinities whom they were created to resemble. To such images were ascribedvarious human faculties and powers, such as speech, thought, and even motion. Whilerenegade priests doubtless resorted to trickery–an instance of which is related in acurious apocryphal fragment entitled Bel and the Dragon and supposedly deleted fromthe end of the Book of Daniel–many of the phenomena recorded in connection withsanctified statues and relics can hardly be explained unless the work of supernaturalagencies be admitted.

History records the existence of stones which, when struck, threw all who heard thesound into a state of ecstasy. There were also echoing images which whispered for hoursafter the room itself had become silent, and musical stones productive of the sweetestharmonies. In recognition of the sanctity which the Greeks and Latins ascribed to stones,they placed their hands upon certain consecrated pillars when taking an oath. In ancienttimes stones played a part in determining the fate of accused persons, for it wascustomary for juries to reach their verdicts by dropping pebbles into a bag.Divination by stones was often resorted to by the Greeks, and Helena is said to haveforetold by lithomancy the destruction of Troy. Many popular superstitions about stonessurvive the so-called Dark Ages. Chief among these is the one concerning the famousblack stone in the seat of the coronation chair in Westminster Abbey, which is declared tobe the actual rock used by Jacob as a pillow. The black stone also appears several timesin religious symbolism. It was called Heliogabalus, a word presumably derived fromElagabal, the Syro-Phoenician sun god. This stone was sacred to the sun and declared topossess great and diversified properties. The black stone in the Caaba at Mecca is stillrevered throughout the Mohammedan world. It is said to have been white originally andof such brilliancy that it could be seen many days’ journey from Mecca, but as agespassed it became blackened by the tears of pilgrims and the sins of the world.